We'll have two threads, with the second one to follow in a couple of weeks to allow adequate time for hearing all playlists. Hopefully this will greatly enhance the experience for everyone involved.

I will be sending out PMs with links for these seven playlists to all players, as well as any additional listeners who express interest in participating. As of right now, tourist is the only listener, so if you want the links, send me a note.

As many of you know, I gravitate toward cerebral music and tend to philosophize more than I should about the purpose and meaning of albums. However, I also love visceral, unapologetic songs. In this list, I wanted to capture the primal force of the Blues. Although not all of these songs adhere to that genre in terms of structure and style, they all exude the raw emotion – whether it be desire, fear, elation, or grief – that makes the Blues an integral part of music history and such a powerful, enduring form of expression.

I bet you can't begin to guess what this is about. Really, the first track explains it all. Now, I'm not being sexist, I don't hate all boys. Just one. The dumbass I wasted the past 2 years of my life with. This list is my final, official good-bye to him. Pity I can't bring myself to speak to him long enough to even give him a copy of the CD.

Don't have much to say about this one. It was converted from an existing ambient list I had made for my father in order to introduce him to the genre, readjusted to include artists like Boards of Canada and DJ Shadow that I have been listening to recently. The old list was actually a bit looser with the term "ambient" than this one, but the above is pretty broad in its genre selections, if not its overall sound. There are definite uptempo parts, but I was generally going for a dark, hypnotic mood here, which I consider the wheelhouse of ambient electronic music. The title purposely suggests that I wouldn't unleash a full list of this sort on a standard DI, so enjoy this insight into the darker avenues of my listening habits.

This playlist is very different than my one for the last full Desert Island. Instead of a story-based thread, I intended to go with a musical theme. It started with Elbow and Depeche Mode firmly in place as the first and last songs. I had an idea of doing an electronic set but without electronic artists. Many pieces of that concept still remain as a loose thread. But the songs that were placed here worked so well together that I didn't want the theme to overshadow a good flow.

“Do the Astral Plane” is just so cool, y’know? I often listen to the second I get in the car, when I’m in an upbeat sorta mood. Great example of the type of track I wish DJs would play, one I’d regularly play if I ever followed through with my grade six dream of being a DJ. “Someone Great” is another one – though if you dropped more than 30 or so seconds of it at a club there’d be a mass walkout. That’s what I don’t like about the people my age. I like a dirty beat as much as the next bloke, but that’s no substitute for great music. Shame there’s no clubs where they really play good music. I think “All My Friends” is still my #1 LCD song, but there’s no point debating really because they’re both such great tracks. Heart-warming and heartbreaking at the same time. They’re really worth getting into, if you aren’t already. Deadmau5 got popular by producing the sort of hard bangers that fuel your Jersey Shore types, but Joel Zimmerman is just a computer nerd at heart and capable of much more – like “HR 8938 Cephei”, a great piece of trance. James Blake is 21. I’m the same age! What I wouldn’t give to be doing what he’s doing now. Dubstep to my mates is taking an ordinary song and that dropping a ridiculous dirty beat into it, one that does sound awesome but throws off the track. They’d probably hate “The Wilhelm Scream” – an affecting bit of melancholy dubstep. Blake has a similar voice to either Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip, who sings half of “So Glad To See You”, another affecting piece of dance music from one of my favourite bands of the past five to ten years. Like LCD, I can’t recommend their music highly enough, particularly this song’s home, The Warning. I say U2 are my favourite band ever, but David Bowie is probably my favourite artist. I’ve got I think nine or ten of his albums and the array of talent and scope he has shown over his recording career is nothing short of mesmerising – and yet my favourite song of his remains “A New Career in a New Town”, an instrumental from his astonishing Low masterpiece, which makes me want to turn my life upside down and move to Vancouver, or Rome, or Berlin, or anywhere, really. As positive a song as you’re ever likely to hear. I think the best songs are the ones that affect – most here do. One that does in a weird sort of way is “Drop” – a song I’ve known only for a few months. Foals were guest programmers on Rage one Saturday night and they played this track, and I was captivated – not only by the film clip, which portrays an Asian boy experimenting with the power of water, but by the ambient nature of the track. His album Point is very much worth a listen. Once you’ve listened to this playlist you’ll see why I placed “Mainstream” after it, but aside from that it’s one of my favourite Outkast tracks. Gorgeous production, skilled, measured rapping (from Andre and Big Boi, at least) and a thoughtful message – lyrics that people never think about when they label hip-hop as trash about guns, bitches, money and drugs. Kid Cudi sang a lot about drugs and bitches and money on Man on the Moon II – that’s why I hated it. But “The E.N.D.” was one of the few salvageables, with its hypnotic old-school beat, and quickly became one of my favourite hip-hop tracks of the past few years. There are plenty of sides to hip-hop which go underappreciated, one of them being the focus and mastery of craft required to produce real good shit, something DJ Shadow has (or had) in spades. “What Does Your Soul Look Like (pt. 1 – Blue Sky Revisit)” samples forgotten songs by Shawn Phillips, David Young, The Alan Parsons Project and The Heath Brothers and creates a touching, desultory landscape that will transport you elsewhere for six minutes. Similarly desultory is Destroyer’s “Bay of Pigs (Detail)”, an 11-minute epic which as been aptly called “ambient disco for one”. That’s why I love it so much – I’d have the time of my life, drinking, alone, in the dark, at the bar or somewhere near, acting out every instrumental turn or vocal lilt. Pitchfork’s review of Kaputt admitted this track was something of an anomaly on the album, and that’s true, but as they correctly pointed out, it’s there because “as many people as possible need to hear it”. Be patient, and let Bejar’s vocals and the band’s music wash over you. Now, I’m on record as disliking Amnesiac, and I still do as a whole. But “Life in a Glasshouse”, along with the majestic “Pyramid Song” and “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box”, is one of the better tracks. I love its drunken brass, its non-sequiturs, it’s hazy, laid-back vibe. And it leads into two instrumental tracks dominated by jazz, Miles’ “Blue in Green” and Tom Waits’ “Closing Time”. The former is my favourite of all the tracks I’ve heard by the great man, and it portrays melancholy as well as any song released before or since. I still haven’t moved past Closing Time, in part because I haven’t given it anywhere enough listens as it deserves, in part because I can’t. It’s such a staggering record emotionally, and I can hardly believe that he went on to top it numerous times in his career with albums I’ve yet to hear. Like much of the album, it’s tinged in deep despair and sadness, but not without just the slightest glimmer of hope, like a man who is a little down on life but won’t ever give up for life is worth living. And so that is my playlist. Best listened to at night I reckon. I hope you all enjoy it, or parts of it, as much as I did putting it together and then writing this.

Hey phanan, my description is missing as well...could you add it when you get a moment? Thanks.

phanan

07-25-2011 10:07 PM

All set, iyup.

phanan

07-25-2011 10:17 PM

PMs with links sent to everyone except Ashley and Mr. V, who have exceeded their storage limits.

LemonMelon

07-25-2011 10:29 PM

So...

1. Phanan
2. Everyone else

Holy shit, dude. I had no idea my taste could be distilled into one disc.

The only thing that sucks is that the first third of my DI9 is spoiled now; you used two of the tracks but nearly all of the artists. :lol: Oh well, it kind of heads into a dreamy alt-country and folk territory after that that no one since the first couple of DIs would ever attempt.

Reggo

07-25-2011 10:31 PM

Friggin' Cobbler :rolleyes:

cobl04

07-25-2011 11:18 PM

What now? :lol:

These all look fantastic. Can't wait to get stuck into them.

Reggo

07-25-2011 11:35 PM

Epic Paragraph Is Epic. tl;dr

LemonMelon

07-25-2011 11:37 PM

No paragraph breaks; didn't read

cobl04

07-26-2011 12:04 AM

“Do the Astral Plane” is just so cool, y’know? I often listen to the second I get in the car, when I’m in an upbeat sorta mood. Great example of the type of track I wish DJs would play, one I’d regularly play if I ever followed through with my grade six dream of being a DJ.

“Someone Great” is another one – though if you dropped more than 30 or so seconds of it at a club there’d be a mass walkout. That’s what I don’t like about the people my age. I like a dirty beat as much as the next bloke, but that’s no substitute for great music. Shame there’s no clubs where they really play good music. I think “All My Friends” is still my #1 LCD song, but there’s no point debating really because they’re both such great tracks. Heart-warming and heartbreaking at the same time. They’re really worth getting into, if you aren’t already.

Deadmau5 got popular by producing the sort of hard bangers that fuel your Jersey Shore types, but Joel Zimmerman is just a computer nerd at heart and capable of much more – like “HR 8938 Cephei”, a great piece of trance. James Blake is 21. I’m the same age! What I wouldn’t give to be doing what he’s doing now. Dubstep to my mates is taking an ordinary song and that dropping a ridiculous dirty beat into it, one that does sound awesome but throws off the track.

They’d probably hate “The Wilhelm Scream” – an affecting bit of melancholy dubstep. Blake has a similar voice to either Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip, who sings half of “So Glad To See You”, another affecting piece of dance music from one of my favourite bands of the past five to ten years. Like LCD, I can’t recommend their music highly enough, particularly this song’s home, The Warning.

I say U2 are my favourite band ever, but David Bowie is probably my favourite artist. I’ve got I think nine or ten of his albums and the array of talent and scope he has shown over his recording career is nothing short of mesmerising – and yet my favourite song of his remains “A New Career in a New Town”, an instrumental from his astonishing Low masterpiece, which makes me want to turn my life upside down and move to Vancouver, or Rome, or Berlin, or anywhere, really. As positive a song as you’re ever likely to hear. I think the best songs are the ones that affect – most here do.

One that does in a weird sort of way is “Drop” – a song I’ve known only for a few months. Foals were guest programmers on Rage one Saturday night and they played this track, and I was captivated – not only by the film clip, which portrays an Asian boy experimenting with the power of water, but by the ambient nature of the track. His album Point is very much worth a listen.

Once you’ve listened to this playlist you’ll see why I placed “Mainstream” after it, but aside from that it’s one of my favourite Outkast tracks. Gorgeous production, skilled, measured rapping (from Andre and Big Boi, at least) and a thoughtful message – lyrics that people never think about when they label hip-hop as trash about guns, bitches, money and drugs.

Kid Cudi sang a lot about drugs and bitches and money on Man on the Moon II – that’s why I hated it. But “The E.N.D.” was one of the few salvageables, with its hypnotic old-school beat, and quickly became one of my favourite hip-hop tracks of the past few years. There are plenty of sides to hip-hop which go underappreciated, one of them being the focus and mastery of craft required to produce real good shit, something DJ Shadow has (or had) in spades.

“What Does Your Soul Look Like (pt. 1 – Blue Sky Revisit)” samples forgotten songs by Shawn Phillips, David Young, The Alan Parsons Project and The Heath Brothers and creates a touching, desultory landscape that will transport you elsewhere for six minutes.

Similarly desultory is Destroyer’s “Bay of Pigs (Detail)”, an 11-minute epic which as been aptly called “ambient disco for one”. That’s why I love it so much – I’d have the time of my life, drinking, alone, in the dark, at the bar or somewhere near, acting out every instrumental turn or vocal lilt. Pitchfork’s review of Kaputt admitted this track was something of an anomaly on the album, and that’s true, but as they correctly pointed out, it’s there because “as many people as possible need to hear it”. Be patient, and let Bejar’s vocals and the band’s music wash over you.

Now, I’m on record as disliking Amnesiac, and I still do as a whole. But “Life in a Glasshouse”, along with the majestic “Pyramid Song” and “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box”, is one of the better tracks. I love its drunken brass, its non-sequiturs, it’s hazy, laid-back vibe.

And it leads into two instrumental tracks dominated by jazz, Miles’ “Blue in Green” and Tom Waits’ “Closing Time”. The former is my favourite of all the tracks I’ve heard by the great man, and it portrays melancholy as well as any song released before or since. I still haven’t moved past Closing Time, in part because I haven’t given it anywhere enough listens as it deserves, in part because I can’t. It’s such a staggering record emotionally, and I can hardly believe that he went on to top it numerous times in his career with albums I’ve yet to hear. Like much of the album, it’s tinged in deep despair and sadness, but not without just the slightest glimmer of hope, like a man who is a little down on life but won’t ever give up for life is worth living. And so that is my playlist. Best listened to at night I reckon. I hope you all enjoy it, or parts of it, as much as I did putting it together and then writing this.

GirlsAloudFan

07-26-2011 01:01 AM

Good looking stuff here, guys. Phanan, can I get the links PMd to me, if that's possible? I'd like to check these out. Thanks.

iron yuppie's is a great idea for a list, and it looks like it will kick ass. The songs I already know on that list are damn good (Stray Cat Blues is one of my favorite Stones songs, for example), and they definitely fit the theme.

I like Reggo's theme a lot, too. Adding a little bit of real life personal background and making selections based on that can definitely help a listener get immersed in the whole experience. I remember for one DI a few years ago, Hardy had a whole section of songs that he chose because they were some of his daughter's favorites that he'd learned to love. I also think it's hilarious and awesome that you have Lea Michele on there (do you watch Glee?). She's wonderful. "I Don't Like You Anymore" is one of the lesser songs on The Age of the Understatement for me, but it fits the theme so there you go.

Phanan's looks like it'll be a lot of fun. Joey788's got some great choices, including a few that I know well and love.

And I can't read Vlad's list. :wink:

Reggo

07-26-2011 01:09 AM

I'll forward you the PM, Gaffer.

Vlad n U 2

07-26-2011 01:25 AM

I reckon I'll get around to listening to these on the weekend. :hyper:

Now that I see what others have done, perhaps I should have added a cover and/or a description, oh well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GirlsAloudFan
(Post 7300480)

And I can't read Vlad's list. :wink:

Yeah, I'm going all foreign on you guys. The best way to enter my first ever playlist. :rockon: